Turning Night
by delicate one
Summary: This is part of a larger fic that may or may not get finished one day - I hope it will be, as I'm quite fond of it. This part was done and makes sense on its own, so because we need more Ten/Martha fic in the world, I decided to post it. Total Fluff.


'Martha...'

She looked over at him in the first glimmers of the long awaited dawn, his carefully tousled hair, his dark dark eyes, his red lips, his mouth forming that hidden smile of his.

'I know.' She nodded.

'I'm sorry.'

'Why? I didn't expect anything of you, you know. I never expected a happy ever after. You're not human and I'm not a silly girl. I'm not an idiot.'

'I never said you were.'

'But you thought it.'

He looked away from her.

'I wanted nothing from you, Doctor. Just to be noticed, just to know that you did care about me in some kind of way...'

He looked at her again 'Martha, I told you...'

'No. Not just like that. I won't lie and say I wouldn't have wanted that, but no. I adored you, and yet I was never even sure if you even liked me. You might have trusted me, but a kind word, not wrapped up in a joke or some throwaway line would have been nice.'

'I did. I do. Care about you.' He reached and took her hand. 'Oh, Martha Jones, where do I begin?' He looked up at the strange greenpink light creeping across the sky and sighed. 'I know. I know I have not been fair to you. I've watched, I've heard myself do it and hated myself. But it's how it had to be.' He reached and touched her cheek. 'You know how old I really am. You've seen it. That's me. This...' He gestured at himself. 'This is a shell. I really am that old, I really am from a completely different species. This is all window dressing. Next time I'll be a completely different man - I could be old and short and bald. I'm not sure. But one thing I am just about sure of is that I WILL outlive you. Doing that once with someone you... love is enough. Imagine it happening over and over again...' His voice trailed away. 'I once told - someone - that it was my curse. The curse of the Time Lords. And they chose not to hear. They wanted more, they wanted forever... And I let then believe in forever because it was easier, because it made me forget. Because, harsh as it may sound to you humans, forever can be the blink of an eye to me. And it was. The blink of an eye, that is. And I was wrong to lead them on.'

He sighed and looked back at her, his eyes intense and wide. 'But I wanted to think it could happen, wanted that voice, that little nagging voice in the back of my brain that still was sane to be wrong for once. But, as we both know... I'm never ever wrong.' He smiled sadly. 'My only defence is that I was in a bit of a mess. You think I'm bad now, you should have seen me then.' He shook his head. 'Gallifrey, the time war... it was all new to me. And they made me forget it for a while.'

Martha squeezed his hand to encourage him.

'You were the only one I told, you know. Really talked to. I never ever told anyone about home before, I'd hidden it away after... After it all happened. It was like...' He turned and looked out at the snow '... like if I didn't mention it, if I didn't talk about it, it wasn't true. It could be like nothing had happened, so even though I couldn't feel it, hear it or them any more in my mind and my hearts, I could pretend it was all still there, they were still there.'

He turned back to look back at her. 'I lied to myself, to everyone, because it was easier.' He looked down at her hand in his, their gloved fingers wrapped around each other. 'You made me talk, no one had ever done that for a long time.' He tugged gently at her hand. ' You made me face things I didn't want to, things I buried too long. You did me good, Martha Jones. Donna always said that.' He looked up to see a single tear trailing down her cheek and he lent forward to kiss it away. 'You never got to know that, but you did. I treated you badly, I asked so much of you and you always took care of me, no matter what.'

Martha looked up at the sky, trying not to cry.

'I was wrong, and this is the only way I know to make things right. Because I can't give you anything else, Martha Jones. I can only tell you I'm sorry, and hold your hand and offer you the universe if you want it.'

She laughed sadly and turned back to him, watching him watching her.

'I never really cared what you looked like, you know. Even when ... You were still you, whatever. It was still you.'

'I know that now.'

She sniffed and looked around. 'The universe... Not many girls are offered the universe and then get it.'

'Well, it might sound like a good deal, but it's not always fabulous. As you know.'

They smiled at each other for a moment until the Doctor pulled her towards him and they wrapped around each other, close and warm, Martha pressing her face into the softness of his coat and breathing him in.

'I never expected forever from you. I just wanted the here and now.'

'I should have given it to you. But I didn't know how to.' He kissed the top of her head. 'Not honestly, anyway.'

She turned her eyes to the sky, the greenpink sky, and breathed deeply. 'It's tomorrow, Doctor.'

He pulled her even closer and rubbed her back in slow circles. 'Naw. It's here and now, Martha.' He smiled into her hair as he rocked her gently in his arms.

'Welcome to here and now.'


End file.
